CVE-2025-21673

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

smb: client: fix double free of TCP_Server_Info::hostname

When shutting down the server in cifs_put_tcp_session(), cifsd thread might be reconnecting to multiple DFS targets before it realizes it should exit the loop, so @server->hostname can't be freed as long as cifsd thread isn't done. Otherwise the following can happen:

RIP: 0010:__slab_free+0x223/0x3c0 Code: 5e 41 5f c3 cc cc cc cc 4c 89 de 4c 89 cf 44 89 44 24 08 4c 89 1c 24 e8 fb cf 8e 00 44 8b 44 24 08 4c 8b 1c 24 e9 5f fe ff ff <0f> 0b 41 f7 45 08 00 0d 21 00 0f 85 2d ff ff ff e9 1f ff ff ff 80 RSP: 0018:ffffb26180dbfd08 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: ffff8ea34728e510 RBX: ffff8ea34728e500 RCX: 0000000000800068 RDX: 0000000000800068 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff8ea340042400 RBP: ffffe112041ca380 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 6170732e31303000 R11: 70726f632e786563 R12: ffff8ea34728e500 R13: ffff8ea340042400 R14: ffff8ea34728e500 R15: 0000000000800068 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8ea66fd80000(0000) 000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007ffc25376080 CR3: 000000012a2ba001 CR4: PKRU: 55555554 Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_trace_log_lvl+0x1c4/0x2df ? show_trace_log_lvl+0x1c4/0x2df ? __reconnect_target_unlocked+0x3e/0x160 [cifs] ? __die_body.cold+0x8/0xd ? die+0x2b/0x50 ? do_trap+0xce/0x120 ? __slab_free+0x223/0x3c0 ? do_error_trap+0x65/0x80 ? __slab_free+0x223/0x3c0 ? exc_invalid_op+0x4e/0x70 ? __slab_free+0x223/0x3c0 ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20 ? __slab_free+0x223/0x3c0 ? extract_hostname+0x5c/0xa0 [cifs] ? extract_hostname+0x5c/0xa0 [cifs] ? __kmalloc+0x4b/0x140 __reconnect_target_unlocked+0x3e/0x160 [cifs] reconnect_dfs_server+0x145/0x430 [cifs] cifs_handle_standard+0x1ad/0x1d0 [cifs] cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x592/0x730 [cifs] ? __pfx_cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x10/0x10 [cifs] kthread+0xdd/0x100 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x29/0x50 </TASK>

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate severity for Red Hat Enterprise Linux because triggering it requires an active SMB/CIFS client connection configured with Distributed File System (DFS) targets to be torn down during a reconnection attempt, resulting in a local denial of service via a kernel crash. The cifs kernel module is not loaded by default on typical installations, and mounting remote shares requires administrative privileges. Therefore, systems that do not mount remote SMB shares with DFS failover are not exposed to this flaw.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.